(1616–1681) Hercules Farnese, black chalk on greyish-blue hand-made paper, 54.8 x 31.8 cm, laid down on support, mounted, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany. Originating from Mechlin, the Flemish Baroque painter Lucas Franchoys the Younger was mainly known as a portraitist and painter of altar paintings. After his formation in Antwerp, which was the center of Flemish art at that time, he may have worked in the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens for some time according to his biographer Cornelis de Bie. His style, however, seems to be influenced by Anthonis van Dyck, with whom he collaborated and after whose paintings he made etchings. Lucas Franchoys executed his first monumental altar paintings for Tournai from 1649 onwards and thus established his fame as one of the leading religious painters in the second half of the 17th century. In 1654 he moved bach to Mechlin, where he became a member of the guild of Saint Luke. Apart from assignments for churches and monasteries he was increasingly occupied with portrait painting.

His drawing oeuvre has not yet been sufficiently researched and only few figure studies have hitherto been clearly attributed to the artist. Like the present drawing his sheets were mainly executed in black or red chalk on blue paper and are datable from the 1650s to the 1660s. Comparable drawings by the artist are preserved in Amsterdam, Darmstadt and in Frankfurt as well as in the Fondation Custodia in Paris.

Literature:
Cf. Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth Century from the Collection of Frits Lugt, exh. cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1972, no. 36, pl. 78.